Product Description

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Scott
a AudioPhile

Date Reviewed: April 22, 2013

Bottom Line:

Very under-rated DAC in the general audio press. Detailed and engaging analog like sound, which has been my experience with all the MSB products I've owned. Even in 2013 this DAC when paired with the P1000 power supply or better is competitive with the best of the currently available $900 - $1500 DACs. Fairly easy to modified - and capable of much, much more.

The Gold Link / Gold Link III when paired with a good power supply (MSB P1000, Monolithic Sound HC 2B, etc.) will not disappoint. Remember however, that a system is a system and not an individual component.

I agree with other reviewers that Steve Rochlin is way off base in dissin’ this DAC. As far as I'm concerned, he and his on-line rag have no credibility.

I had a GOLD III with the P1000 power supply (something Rochlin never tried) for over three years and it was a delight every time I used it. It was the poor-man's Platinum DAC and has been discontinued. I have now moved on to the GOLD4, or Power DAC.
MSB is perhaps the most advanced DAC company on the planet and keeps pushing the bar higher.

before buying this unit ,I was using a MSB111 with unsampling, actually I bought the Gold link thinking theres only one version the latest and greatest . But to my chagrin Its a earlier vintage unit which a few reviewers slammed pretty hard "Steven Rochlin" in particular,so this tainted my opinion, then I tried it again after sufficient burn in and sounds phenoninal
Why do we put so much stock in reviewers comments? Steve is/was a local guy to me/i bought several pieces off him /mostly in the used vintage dept. I always thought he had more money than brains and his employer thought the same. People wake up. Opinions are like a'holes sometimes,and its amazing how we can get a piece of equipment and cause someone said this our perception is tainted.Well Steve the only reason you had all that money is cause yourbrother in Key West left it to you,you do the math

This is a review of the Gold Link III with upsampling on and P1000 Power Base.
This is the one of the best investments in a piece of audio gear that I have made. Wide, deep and high soundstage, excellent low level detail retrieval, smooth, clean and detailed midrange and highs, deep, tight extended bass. Using Sony SCD777ES as transport. Really cleans up some of the less than perfectly engineered CD,s and reduces listening fatique. Highly Recommended.

Most open, airy, clear, natural sounding DAC I have ever had in my system. I have a NAD S500, CD player with full class A analog stages, and burr-brown dac. When I a/b this with the gold link (fed from the NAD's digital outpu) the difference is quite striking. The NAD's dac sounds muffled, like listening to music with pillows over your ears. What a diffence the gold link makes in direct A/B comparison! The music instantly opens up, sound stage and ambience suddenly appear, voices sound breathy and natural. String "bite" on guitars is so much more realistic. You can hear the pick scraping the strings sometimes, etc. etc.